Little Paper Hearts
by rocketsandwaterfalls
Summary: Jessie is determined to have her first successful Valentine's Day.


Jessie tugged on the loop of the silk pink ribbon, tightening the bow at the end of one of her long braids. She patted her hair down and gave a quick brush to her skirt, smoothing the material before looking back in the mirror and speaking triumphantly to her reflection, "Finally!" She clenched her first in determination, "Today will be my first successful Valentine's Day!"

She plopped her backpack on the counter and shifted her gaze and touch to the pile of three large heart-shaped valentines, trailing her fingers around the frilled edges of lace framing the carefully cut and decorated red cardstock. She sighed, raising her head to again look into the mirror.

"Valentine's Day," she whispered melodramatically to herself, touching her fingertips to the reflective surface, "Just another wretched square in the tapestry of tragedy that was my miserable childhood."

Jessie allowed her memories to wash over her, failed Valentine's Days piling up one after another in her mind. She recalled year after year being passed up by entire classes of boys with bags of glossy store bought cards folded in two, watching in loneliness as other girls compared messages from cute classmates, speculating as to what affections were conveyed with the flimsy paper cards.

But nice valentines were one of the many luxuries Jessie could never afford, instead coming to class with a pile of sloppy hand drawn cards cut from the few sheets of construction paper her family could spare money to buy. And every February fourteenth, she ran home empty handed and crying after having her second rate valentines rejected by her male classmates.

But Pokémon Tech was a new world altogether, Jessie was on her own and without a pushy and overly caring mother insisting that even with her limited materials she must make a valentine for every member of her class so as not to make anyone feel left out. _A courtesy no one has ever extended to me_ , the girl dwelled bitterly.

So this year the redhead opted to play it smart, instead saving up and investing her limited finances in enough quality materials from the craft store to make three beautiful, ornate valentines, fashioned weeks in advance and now soon to be distributed to the three cutest, most popular boys in her class, the quality and limited number certain to make the schoolgirl's affections seem even more exclusive and desirable.

Jessie smiled, threw her backpack over her shoulder and carefully scooped up the three decorative hearts. "This year's going to be different," she declared to the empty room before slipping out the door and jogging to her homeroom class.

The room was already busy with chatter and the nervous energy of youthful infatuation when the young teen entered and found her seat, laying her collection of hearts on the desk before sitting and folding her hands in her lap. Jessie took a deep breath and subtly glanced around the room surveying the class and confirming to herself her decision about which boys to give her limited valentines to.

Her eyes rolled toward the front of the room, to Michael – a toned athlete with messy brown hair who was currently busy recounting the plays of the recent game to a group of adoring fans. Jessie nodded slightly to herself. His good looks and status as a sports hero were certain to make for a suitable boyfriend.

She quickly threw her head back to look behind her, catching a quick peak of Sean, whose slicked back inky black hair brought out the glow of his pale complexion as he leaned back in his chair with feet propped up on the desk. Jessie gave a slight smile. His cool, bad boy demeanor certainly secured his spot as one of the most popular boys in class.

Finally, Jessie turned her head to the left, looking to the side of the classroom to Justin, with sharp cut blonde hair, a dazzling smile, and the patch that marked him as class president sewn with pride to the lapel of his jacket. Jessie let out a sigh, feeling a sense of certainty. Justin's high ranking and status definitely warranted his receipt of a valentine.

Jessie began slowly turning her head back to the front of the room to wait patiently when she met the glance of another boy across the room. His lovely green eyes locked onto hers before, seeming to realize she had returned his gaze, he gasped slightly and blushed, jerking his head back to the front of the room and tilting it forward, allowing his chin length blue hair to hide his profile. The redhead felt her own face flush and briefly stopped to admire the way the boy's hair fell across his beautiful features before turning back to the front of the room herself.

She allowed her mind to wander a moment longer, summoning from her memories the boy's name and identity. _James_ , she recalled to herself. Yes, she remembered, he was the shy, whiny rich boy everyone was constantly mocking for his pretentious dress and stiff attitude. Jessie looked downwards to the valentines on her desk before resting her chin on her hand and briefly looking to the side again. _Well, he is rather attractive in a way_ , she mused to herself. But of course the distribution of valentines was not just about who she liked the most, Jessie reminded herself, but who would most effectively raise her status among her peers.

So Jessie straightened her back and sat up in her chair, looking forward in determined concentration before the teacher stood up at the front of the room and began to speak.

"Alright class," the woman announced, "Given the special holiday and my years of experience as an educator, I understand the probability of us getting any learning accomplished today is incredibly low. So feel free to go ahead and begin trading Valentine's Day cards, and be sure to read up on the varying speed stats of water-type Pokémon for tomorrow's class."

The class erupted in giggles and Jessie herself grinned as people began milling about the room, exchanging shimmering squares of cards and tiny candies. The redhead decided to play it cool and crossed her legs, waiting patiently and allowing herself no more than millisecond glimpses of the cartoony holographic images that jumped out from the mass produced, popular valentines traveling around the room. She began to jiggle her leg back and forth, her nerves increasing the more bodies crossed the room without stopping at her desk.

Finally she noticed athletic Michael nearing her eye line, walking down the row of desks towards her, stopping to place a few cards as he went. _Well,_ she thought to herself, the boy getting ever closer, _let's approach this with confidence!_ So she shot out her arm and stopped her classmate in his tracks to present the homemade paper heart clasped in her hand.

"For you!" She chirped enthusiastically, her stomach beginning to churn, her insides feeling weightless and filled with a fluttering hurricane of butterfrees as she stared at his blank, shocked expression.

"Oh, uh…" he finally snatch the card from her hand, "Thanks!" and he quickly pushed past her still outstretched arm without another word and leaving her staring at her empty hand.

The wings of the butterfrees in Jessie's stomach seemed to quickly turn to lead and plummet and crash towards her core, leaving her with her heart whirling about in a hurricane of panic and her abdomen tight and tense and aching with the sensation of being punched in the gut. A sharp intake of breath and her inner voice called to her, _Get it together Jessie! Stay strong!_ Prompting her to exhale in a huff and quickly retract her arm to smoothly set her elbow on her desk, roll her eyes nonchalantly, rest her chin on her hand, and begin staring straight forward in a façade of boredom.

She held her aloof stance in an attempt to hide her embarrassment until she finally decided enough time had passed to steal another glance across the room, revaluating the conditions of the tense battlefield that was her middle school class room. Jessie quickly noted she was one of a slim number of students who remained seated – the others being Sean, who was still leaning back in his desk and possibly asleep, the singular elderly man who had been held back in this very class since before Jessie was born and was currently studying a worn and tattered copy of a textbook on water Pokémon, and the nervous rich boy with the blue hair who remained stiff and frozen, staring straight down at his hands folded in his lap. _I'm not exactly in stellar company on this one_ , she noted to herself.

But she had little time to focus on this issue as she noticed Justin was nearing her desk, stopping to chat and laugh with girls and hand them small candies. Jessie made note of how the small, long-haired brunette giggled and looked down shyly as she accepted the valentine, Justin responding by flashing the girl a dazzling smile before continuing his stroll through the rows of desks.

 _Alright_ , she thought, _so directness and confidence didn't work, I guess I should try the opposite._ She grimaced at the thought, acting demure and submissive wasn't exactly honest to her character, and the idea of pretending to be so for a boy was abhorrent to her. But she reminded herself she'd already failed once and his valentine and popularity were the real prizes here, the boy could always be dumped later if he failed to appreciate the real Jessie. So with Justin sufficiently close, she began twirling her braid around her finger and batting her eyelashes enticingly until he was standing right in front of her desk and meeting her eyes, at which point the redhead followed through with her artifice by looking down shyly, delicately setting the card she had made for him on the table as an offering, and unsuccessfully attempting to fake a blush across her cheeks. She continued looking down in falsified bashfulness, waiting for a reaction, the sight of a card substituted for her own in her peripheral. Growing impatient, she finally looked up to see…

 _He had kept walking and hadn't even taken her card!_ She felt her face grow red for real, this time out of anger and humiliation, and snatched the rejected paper heart from its place on her desk and began angrily ripping it to pieces. She hung her head in defeat, staring down into the pile of shredding cardstock collected in her lap, seething with bitter anger.

 _Forget that shallow fool, Jessie!_ She coached herself onward, _You still have one more chance, show them all what they're missing!_ So she struck her fist against her desk in determination, stood up, held tightly to her final remaining heart and scanned the room for Sean, her final target, turning back to the seat he had occupied… only to find it empty. She frantically turned her head around the room to discover that in fact most of the class was already gone or currently filing out, smiling with arms full of cards, and her final potential Valentine was long gone and nowhere to be found.

Jessie felt her throat tighten and the sting of tears threatening to form in her eyes. With impulsive anger she shoved her remaining carefully decorated heart to the bottom of her backpack and slammed the bag on the ground, giving it a slight kick before running out of the room, aggressively pushing past her classmates and continuing to run until she reached the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her. She quickly inspected the bathroom to ensure it was empty before letting out a single choked sob and shutting her eyes tight, still refusing to allow a single tear to escape.

"Great, I worked so hard on those stupid cards just for another Valentine's Day full of rejection and failure!" She growled. She allowed herself to feel the full sting of her heartbreak for a few more brief seconds, taking deep breaths that caused her whole chest to ache, before marching to the sinks, staring into the mirror and speaking to herself, "Now get it together Jessie! This isn't your first miserable Valentine's Day, and it's not your fault these tasteless fools can't appreciate true beauty and grace when they see it!" She straightened her shoulders and stood up with dignity and pride. _Now I should at least go back in to get my backpack,_ she thought to herself, recalling with mild embarrassment how she'd thrown it to the ground in a frenzy of anger.

So, now composed and making a note to walk with grace and stoicism, the redhead left the bathroom calmly and walked through the hall, nonchalantly brushing past the bodies still slowly finding their way out of the building. She entered the classroom, feeling a sense of relief upon seeing it was now entirely deserted and she was without witnesses as she went to retrieve her things. But before reaching down for her bag, the girl noticed something that once again broke her momentarily calm demeanor.

A single red rose, placed on the center of the desk, with a small tag folded in two and carefully attached with thin golden ribbon. Jessie slowly reached forward with slightly shaking hands, lightly grasping the flower by the vibrant green stem, the thorns of which had been carefully sliced off by a deliberate hand. She ran her fingers across the rich red petals, feeling the smooth velvety texture of the fresh flower. With slight hesitation, still prepared to find the present was left for someone else, the redhead carefully opened the attached card.

She stared at the carefully, neatly drawn elaborate script, swoops and swirls of inky black cursive unfolding against the grains of eggshell white parchment. She overcame her nerves and excitement to focus on the words, eagerly making out the message.

 _Dear Jessie,_

 _I hope you will graciously accept this flower as a symbol of my sincerest affections. I think you are the most beautiful and charming girl in the entire school and have admired you from afar from the moment I first saw you. This rose represents your brilliant youth and beauty and the romantic adoration I feel for you this Valentine's Day._

 _Yours Truly,_

 _James_

" _James_ ," she whispered to herself and once again felt tears gathering in her eyes, this time from the warm rush of joy that filled her. She continued to stare on in reverence at the gorgeous flower in her hand, struck by how foolish her earlier anxiety and desperation over flimsy children's cards seemed now that she held such an elegant token of true affection, the single rose more than making up for every card and piece candy she'd never received. Jessie was suddenly struck with what she had left to do, quickly scooping up her backpack and running out of the room, silently praying that the boy had not yet left the campus.

So she sprinted and turned through the corridors of the building, whipping her head back and forth as she ran, scanning for her newfound admirer. Finally she caught sight of a mop of silky periwinkle hair moving towards the exit.

"James!" She shouted across the hall, continuing to jog forward, relief filling her as he turned around and green eyes registered her form. She reached him, with her face red and coated in sweat. He gazed down at her as she leaned forward gasping for breath until she could finally speak.

"I'm… uh, I'm Jessie…" _Damnit Jessie, he obviously knows that!_ "I mean, I'm… I think you left this, for me." She held up the rose between them.

His face flushed a shade of pink to match hers and he shyly bowed his head towards the floor. "Yes, I hope you didn't find it presumptuous or crude," he spoke softly, and she giggled at his hesitance and formality.

"Thank you," was her response as she impulsively wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. "It's the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me." He cautiously returned the hug, both nervous and excited at the new affection.

Jessie finally pulled back, not fully letting go of the boys arm as she swung her bag around to rummage through it, pulling out the remaining valentine she had shoved to the bottom and smoothing the crumpled lace before presenting it to him.

"Here," she said anxiously, "It, uh… it got a little damaged, but this is for you." She placed the paper heart in his hand.

He smiled serenely. "It's lovely. You have quite the artistic talent."

"Well, I don't like to brag," she beamed at the compliment, "And you clearly have good taste."

They both laughed nervously as they stood there, unsure how to proceed next, awkwardly hanging on to the new connection between them. Finally Jessie spoke, gesturing with the slender rose in her hand, "Well I suppose I should get this in some water soon."

"Oh, of course," the boy responded, hesitance and disappointment clear in his tone.

Jessie simply grinned. "Besides, I have to get ready, you're taking me on a Valentine's Day date at seven!" She punctuated this declaration with a kiss on his cheek, before twirling around and skipping away, turning back only long enough to catch a glimpse of James smiling and bringing his hand up to delicately touch the place on his blushing cheek she had kissed. She giggled joyful at the sight as she ran off, giddy and proudly holding her new trophy – her first Valentine's present, from the only Valentine she'd ever need.


End file.
